Known as Tin-Can-Curt, Curt Degerman, 60, had been known around his home town of Skelleftea, in northern Sweden, as a harmless eccentric who picked up tins to sell for pennies to shopkeepers and a recycling plant.A tramp who scavenged for cans and old sandwiches for 40 years has died leaving behind a secret fortune worth nearly £1million.
However, what neither his family
nor those in the town knew was that he then used the money to buy stocks and
shares.
For despite appearances to the contrary, Mr Degerman was for 40 years actually a dedicated player of the financial markets.
As well as eating left-over food
from bins and wearing the same filthy blue anorak, Mr Degerman would regularly
study the financial pages of newspapers in the town's public library every day.
'He went to the library every day
because he didn't buy newspapers. There he read [Swedish business daily] Dagens
Industri,' his cousin told local media at the time of his death.
'He knew the stock market inside
out.'
It was thanks to his shrewd
decisions that he amassed his fortune.
It was only after he died of a
heart attack that his relatives found he had left behind shares worth more than
£731,000 in a Swiss bank account.
In addition he left gold bars
worth £250,000 as well as £275 of loose change at his home.
The closet millionaire was
described by relatives as a 'very clever' child who had dropped out of school
after a personal crisis.
His fortune came to light after a
row developed following his death.
Mr Degerman had made a will
leaving his entire fortune to one cousin who visited him during the months
leading up to his death.
But another cousin who believed
his father was entitled to a slice of the fortune contested the will when the
full extent of the estate emerged.
Under Swedish inheritance law the
uncle, whose name has not been made public, held the legal right to inherit his
nephew's riches.
The two cousins eventually
settled out of court this week, agreeing to split the fortune.
Neither would reveal the details
of the settlement but both said that they were 'satisfied' with the outcome.
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